Archives for the

21st Century
 Archives for the
21st Century
Presented to Parliament by the Lord Chancellor
and Secretary of State for Justice
by Command of Her Majesty

November 2009

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Contents
Foreword 1

Executive summary 3

1. The archives world today 6

2. Vision: the true potential of publicly funded archives 9

3. Challenge: what is stopping publicly funded archives

from reaching their potential? 11

4. Response: how do we achieve the vision? 16

5. Action: what needs to be done? 21

Foreword
Our history is preserved and protected in a nationwide network of archival services. These
treasure chests of information hold our national, local and family histories. If there is to be
a record of the present for future generations, however, the importance of capturing digital
material to form the historical record must be acknowledged and the challenges of
preserving digital information grasped.

The information world has changed beyond all recognition since the last policy on archives
was published ten years ago. Both the creation and the use of information have been
revolutionised, not least through our ability to go online without being tied to a computer
at home or in the office, or to work while on the move with technology that has become
smaller, faster and more sophisticated.

The speed with which the digital world has been embraced across society means that
people have come to expect information to be accessible online, at all times, and their
approach to archives is no different. It is essential that the archives sector is able to
respond to this challenge and continues to increase the proportion of records that are
accessible online.

Archives are an increasingly popular cultural and educational resource, used to support the
study of local and family history. This is due in part to the wider availability of digital
sources and also encouraged by the popularity of TV programmes such as Who Do You
Think You Are? Archives are also a major resource for academic research and publishing,
which contribute significantly to the UK’s international research competitiveness across a
broad range of academic disciplines.

To survive for posterity, our archives must be actively collected, well cared for and readily
accessible. However, publicly funded archives have a wider role than simply being
custodians of our national memory. The availability of information is an essential part of a
healthy, robust democracy. It helps to empower people to participate in the decisions
affecting their own lives. It promotes a better understanding of how policy is developed and
how it applies to individuals. Increasingly, the archive sector has an important role to play in
understanding and therefore contributing to outcomes of government policies at a local,
regional and national level.

Archives can, and indeed in many cases do, make a clear contribution to the delivery of
local policy initiatives, often through partnerships with other cultural, learning and
information organisations. Local government and universities play a leading role in delivering
key policy goals, especially in the areas of education and learning, empowering and engaging
communities, supporting regeneration and growth, and facilitating volunteering
opportunities. Archives need to be embedded more closely within the business and planning
processes in their parent organisations to help deliver such key objectives.

Archives for the 21st Century 1

Therefore, this is a call to action – particularly to the parent organisations of publicly
funded archive services in local authorities and universities – to recognise the essential
value that archives can add to the development of policy and the delivery of services locally.
The policy does not offer a single blueprint for service provision. However, it is time to
demand more from these valuable resources and to harness the knowledge, skills and
enthusiasm of the professionals working in them. Archive services already play a vital role in
the communities they serve. The potential for archives to contribute even further to
democracy and accountability, social policy, education, history and culture, is yet to be fully
realised in the digital age.

Rt Hon Michael Wills MP Rt Hon Margaret Hodge Barbara Follett MP

Minister of State,
Ministry of Justice
MBE MP
Minister of State for Culture Parliamentary Under
and Tourism, Secretary of State,
Department for Culture, Communities and Local
Media and Sport Government

2
Executive summary

The power of archives

Shaping the shared sense of national, community and individual identity that
creates the framework for our democracy and accountability, gives people a frame of
reference for their place in society, and helps them to understand how their location,
community and family have developed.

Providing a stimulating environment for individual, family and lifelong

learning in formal education, academic and personal research and outreach activities
that stimulate an interest in people, places and our shared histories and experiences.

Sourcing evidence that demonstrates the integrity and judgement of public

and private decisions and actions, which lasts longer and is more reliable than
individual memory. Archives thus support evidence-based policy making and
accountability and have an impact on the lives of individuals by providing authentic and
reliable evidence of past actions.

Publicly funded archive services have a vital role within the communities they serve to
contribute to local democracy, strong and cohesive communities, social policy, education,
research, history and culture. The variety and historical significance of the collections held in
archives can empower citizens to participate in community decisions and the shape of local
services, and they can support people in developing a deep sense of place and identity.
Around 300 institutions in England and Wales actively collect archives in a variety of
formats including paper and electronic documents, film or sound recordings. A large
proportion of these are within local authorities and universities, forming the backbone of
publicly funded archival provision. There are also many private archives, preserving and
often providing access to the records of individual businesses, families and organisations.
Without the work of these public and private services, much of the nation’s documentary
heritage would not survive.

Since 1999 the archives sector has had some major achievements. Many archives have
transformed the accessibility of their services both through the use of online facilities and
through targeted projects with communities and schools based on important historical
events, such as the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in
2007. The role of archives as keepers of community memory, promoting social inclusion
and a sense of place, has been reinforced and developed into widespread community
outreach programmes. The Archive Awareness Campaign has raised the profile of archives
nationwide.1 The Access to Archives (A2A) database was developed by The National Archives
to widen the opportunities for online searching of catalogues for a wide range of archive
collections across England.

1. The Archive Awareness Campaign (www.archiveawareness.com) exists to promote public awareness

of archives throughout the UK. It is co-ordinated by the National Council on Archives with the support of
The National Archives and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

Archives for the 21st Century 3

Similarly, in Wales, the Archives and Records Council Wales developed Archives Wales
(AW). Hosted by The National Library of Wales, AW provides comprehensive summaries
of archive collections held across Wales. Both A2A and AW have been used extensively for
personal and academic research. The higher education and specialist sectors have parallel
provision of rich online descriptions, through the complementary work of the Archives Hub
and Archives in London and the M25 Area (AIM25).2

The public profile of archive services has been significantly enhanced through television
series like Who Do You Think You Are?, increasing the numbers of visitors inspired to use
archives to explore their family or local history. Archives have contributed to broader
public policy agendas, such as community cohesion, through projects like Birmingham City
Archives’ Connecting Histories and Plymouth and West Devon Record Office’s participation
in the Cultural Olympiad by documenting the build-up to the Olympic Games in 2012. The
Community Archives Wales (CAW) project similarly aims to strengthen community identity
and contributes to regeneration in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Wales. There
has been significant investment in new archive buildings, for example in Devon,
Northumberland, Glamorgan and Norfolk, and at the universities of Manchester and York.
A partnership between the University of Hull and Hull City Archives is delivering
improvements through a shared building project. New buildings improve the standard of
care for collections and provide the facilities to enable the future development of services.
They can also have an important impact on the archive service as a whole, making it an
attractive place to visit and thus broadening use and raising community awareness of the
facility.

This policy sets out the strategic vision for the sustainable development of a vigorous,
publicly funded archive sector across England and Wales. The policy is being issued in
parallel versions. It replaces the government policy on archives that was issued by the Lord
Chancellor in 1999 and builds on both the positive achievements around public access to
information and technological developments. It focuses on actions for publicly funded
archives while acknowledging that private archives remain vital to the archival health of the
nation. The challenges facing the archives sector and the actions to address them are
outlined in the five sections of this strategy:

Section 1 outlines how the landscape in which archive services operate has also changed
radically in that time. Large organisations now keep most, if not all, of their information in
electronic form, and many individuals and smaller organisations are also moving in that
direction. Technology has made the traditional concept of the ‘record’ more complex as
new channels and tools for recording and communicating information proliferate. Individual
citizens increasingly expect information to be accessible online as a right, not a privilege,
while society is becoming more diverse, mobile and transient. At the same time, the
expectations of public services, both by government and citizens, have become more
demanding, and the evidence base needed in bidding for funding has become more detailed.

2. The Archives Hub (www.archiveshub.ac.uk) and AIM25 (www.aim25.ac.uk) provide online access to
descriptions of archives held by over 250 services, primarily based in universities and specialist repositories
such as museums, learned societies and Royal Colleges.

4
Section 2 provides a vision of the true potential of publicly funded archives and what they
can aspire to offer. Archives have the power to inspire, inform and entertain. They can
provide accounts of the way individuals, families and communities interact, make decisions,
learn and enjoy themselves and provide vital links between past, present and future
generations. The value of this major resource should be recognised and harnessed for the
benefit of all.

Section 3 outlines the challenges facing archive services in the delivery of their core task
of preserving authentic information and helping people to access and understand the past.
These include the impact that the considerable variation in size and resources between
publicly funded institutions has on the consistency of service across England and Wales. The
condition of some buildings that house archives can place collections at physical risk and can
also place a real constraint on accepting new material or providing wider public access.
The major challenge to manage digital records effectively, ensuring access now and in the
longer term in a readable archive, is familiar to many organisations. The task of providing
online access to catalogues is incomplete, and work to digitise collections is as yet mostly
small-scale and piecemeal. There are many changes in the way that local services are
delivered, particularly in learning and culture. This has enhanced the need to create
opportunities to collaborate with other archives or other relevant partners. Just as critical
is the need to further develop clear and strong leadership within the sector at all levels.

Section 4 sets out five key recommendations. These will help create a more vibrant and
sustainable archive sector, that participates actively within the many diverse communities
that it serves. The five recommendations are:
Develop bigger and better services in partnership – working towards increased
sustainability within the sector
Strengthened leadership and a responsive, skilled workforce
Co-ordinated response to the growing challenge of managing digital information so that
it is accessible now and remains discoverable in the future
Comprehensive online access for archive discovery through catalogues and to digitised
archive content by citizens at a time and place that suits them
Active participation in cultural and learning partnerships promoting a sense of identity
and place within the community

Section 5 highlights the need for concerted action by all parties connected with the archive
sector to ensure a sustainable future, allowing strong participation in the activities that
support a healthy and robust democracy and community. It is vital to offer a clear sense of
direction to the public sector in the current challenging economic climate, to ensure the
potential of archives continues to be realised. Implementing the principles outlined above will
help to provide archive services with a firm foundation for the future and assist in raising
their profile to demonstrate their value and importance within the wider community.

This policy is accompanied by a report on the consultation phase, which can be downloaded
from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/policy/Aft21C. An action plan for England and an action
plan for Wales for the delivery of the policy are being developed by The National Archives,
the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and CyMAL: Museums Archives and
Libraries Wales, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government.

Archives for the 21st Century 5

1. The archives world today
‘The archival record is . . . the direct, uninterpreted and authentic voice of the
past: the primary evidence of what people did and what they thought; the look
of places and events recorded through images – both still and moving; life’s
beginnings and life’s endings; the growth and decline of industries and the ebbs
and flows of communities and cultures. The archival record is the foundation on
which are built all our histories, with their many and varied voices . . .

‘Archival records fulfil another unique role. They can be the evidential
components of the public record and are therefore essential to understanding
the processes of decision-making and governance. Preserving and managing
these records has a long and honourable history that is now visible in the work
of the UK’s national archival services and the network of local record offices,
and specialist archives.’3

1.1 Archives are the record of the everyday activities of governments, organisations,
businesses and individuals. They are central to the record of our national and local
stories and are vital in creating cultural heritage and supporting public policy
objectives. Their preservation ensures that future generations will be able to learn
from the experiences of the past to make decisions about the present and future.

1.2 In today’s rapidly changing information world the archive sector faces complex
challenges, both in documenting the evolving present and in delivering the core task
of helping people to access and understand the past:
There is a growing expectation in society that all information resources should
be available online, 24 hours a day.
There is a shift from paper to digital record keeping and other non-traditional
record formats. This has been accompanied by a decline in the recognition of the
need to link current record keeping in all formats with preserving archives.
The complex digital environment requires archivists to develop new expertise
with a wider range of skills and knowledge.
The changing profile of local government delivery has required a shift to strategy,
delivery and performance management, based upon tangible outcomes to
communities. This is often increasingly achieved through a joined-up partnership
approach with public, private and third sector providers across the cultural
sector and beyond.

1.3 Business and government, as well as most of the population, have changed the way
they communicate in radical ways. In the last decade, developments in the internet,
email and office technology have led to an enormous growth in the volumes of
digital information being generated. Quite often a key communication method for
government policy or guidance is on websites, with daily or more frequent updating
(for example, during an outbreak of animal disease the online guidance is updated
frequently).

3. Listening to the Past, Speaking to the Future: Report of the Archives Task Force, March 2004
(www.mla.gov.uk/what/publications/~/media/Files/pdf/2004/listening_to_the_past_report.ashx)

6
1.4 Technology is transforming the way all organisations communicate, including national
and local government, but it can also put information at risk; information can be lost
as technological obsolescence renders it unreadable and unusable. The volume of
information that now only exists in electronic format is already vast and growing
rapidly. This brings its own problems for identifying and capturing the key records
that must be kept, in addition to then preserving them for the future. Managing
electronic records presents a number of issues both in the scale of the challenge
and the required technical skills set.

1.5 Archive services, alongside their duty to preserve the record of both the past and
the present, also aim to make the information in their collections discoverable,
accessible and relevant to all. This may be achieved by supporting independent and
academic researchers to make optimal use of the material available, and increasingly
by developing cooperative partnerships to deliver cultural, research, education and
information priorities.

1.6 A large part of the nation’s archival heritage is held by around 300 publicly funded
archive services across England and Wales that collect material actively. Local
authorities in England and Wales make up about half of these, and universities a
further quarter, providing the backbone of the network of archival provision.
National institutions (including The National Archives, The National Library of
Wales and some national museums) and professional bodies have a significant role in
acquiring archives. There are also a large number of mainly privately funded
organisations that maintain their own records, and those of their predecessors.

Archives for the 21st Century 7

 Exploring climate change –
what the sailors of the past can tell us
CLIWOC is an EU-funded international collaborative project between museum
archives, universities and international institutes. Led by the University of Sunderland
and the National Maritime Museum, it has drawn on historic collections to produce
scientific material with real, practical benefits for meteorology today. The researchers
aimed to discover more about the changing climate over the oceans in the period
before industrialisation had any significant effect on climate and weather. The project
was designed to abstract, interpret and analyse the data from logbooks kept by ships’
officers from the 17th century onwards and to prepare a database that can be used by
scientists to gain a better understanding of the climates over the ocean during this
time. They also planned to compile a dictionary of logbook weather terms that convert
old and seemingly curious descriptions into terms that make scientific sense.

Seasoned mariners compiled the logbooks in the vocabulary unique to their profession
and their times. As observations were made several times each day during the voyages
– many of these journeys lasting for months – logbooks contain huge amounts of
detailed information. Instruments were only used rarely and the observations of the
weather described those aspects influencing the navigation and progress of their ships.

Although these records were not originally compiled for this purpose, the abundance
of data for wind force and direction is now invaluable, as it has been drawn from
sources that pre-date global warming. It tells us much about the broad patterns of
atmospheric behaviour related to the high- and low-pressure systems over the oceans.
These systems govern the everyday weather that we recognise as rainfall, snow,
temperatures, cloud and sunshine. In that sense, the data can be regarded as more
fundamental to our understanding of climate than instrumental data, such as
temperature and rainfall measurements.

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2. Vision: the true potential of publicly
funded archives
2.1 Access to publicly funded archives, and the information derived from them, should
be available to every citizen. If the true potential of publicly funded archive services
were realised, we would live in a world where:

2.1.1 Every citizen feels a connection to their nation state and their local community
and can readily find out why their country and their neighbourhood is the way it is.
Communities are empowered to collect and share their stories to inspire,
inform and entertain.

2.1.2 Every child experiences history brought to life through innovative access to our
written, recorded and visual heritage, enriching their learning and inspiring creativity.
Young people are inspired to take an interest in politics and their local community
through the creative use of archive material to promote active citizenship.

2.1.3 People of all ages and abilities can explore their personal identity by finding out
about aspects of the past, such as their family history, and can do so easily through
access to the internet at home or even on the move. Engaging in cross-generational
learning is an enriching experience that archives are uniquely placed to support.

2.1.4 The community is offered a range of volunteering opportunities, enriching

lives and benefiting archives alike.

2.1.5 Public sector organisations and businesses make better decisions because they
have access to all the relevant evidence and are fully informed about lessons from
the past. The economic potential of historic information to the business
community is unlocked and fully exploited.

2.1.6 The value of the nation’s archive heritage is unlocked, supporting the UK’s
internationally significant research and its intellectual and economic benefits.

2.2 Archives have the power to narrate the essential record of our national and local
story and so to enable future generations to learn about their origins. As the
academic community fully appreciates, history is constantly, but often unconsciously,
at work underpinning the operation of our society and giving context and meaning
to individual and community life. Without archives, we would have no
comprehensible history and without history we would have no roots or clear future
direction.

2.3 Archives are the raw material of history, evidence of decisions made, of lives lived,
of fashions, medical advancements and architectural change, as much as of wars,
politics and economic expansion. Primary historical research material is critical to
branches of scholarship as diverse as climatology, epidemiology, ethnography and
linguistics, as well as all the various aspects of historical and socio-economic study
with which it is most closely associated.

Archives for the 21st Century 9

2.4 Archives have great potential to support public policy objectives. Over recent years,
for example, changes to local government service delivery have required archive
services to think increasingly about how their activities can contribute to policy
priorities and how they can articulate the contribution they are making.

10
3. Challenge: what is stopping publicly
funded archives from reaching their
potential?
3.1 Many publicly funded archives across the UK are delivering significant and valued
services to their community. There is not, however, a consistent picture across
England and Wales and the provision of archive services varies significantly in
size, budget, facilities and local profile. Historically, the value of archives has not
been recognised in the same way as museums and libraries and so they have
received a lower priority within the process for setting budgets. They face complex
challenges both in continuing to deliver on their core mission and in adapting to the
changing requirements of service delivery and new ways of working in response to
the current trends in society.

3.2 Inequalities of funding across the sector have meant that a consistent offer is
difficult to achieve and there are major disparities in the scale and quality of
provision.4 The archive sector is characterised by a large number of small institutions
with very few staff. This means that in many places important elements of archival
activities, such as active collection development, conservation and cataloguing, are
not being carried out at an adequate level, or even at all. The growing technical
complexity of record keeping, and the increased range of administrative and
management skills required by archival institutions, make operational effectiveness
ever harder for small services, some of whom also find it a struggle to release staff
for the professional training that develops and maintains their skills.

3.3 Building the capacity to improve can be a complex process for archive services.
They are usually small units within parent organisations and can be missed when
business and delivery priorities are set. Archive services need to actively
demonstrate where they add value to policy targets both in their own right and in
cooperation with other culture, learning and information partners. Although, in local
government, archives are not explicitly included within local performance
frameworks, there is potential for archive services to make a major contribution to
the overall delivery of many local authority priorities. Correspondingly, research
collections make a vital contribution to universities, adding value to a university’s
reputation and scholarship.

4. Funding for local authority archive services varies from £56,000 to £2.35m (£0.21 to £4.69 per capita) per
annum (Source: Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, Archive Statistics 2006-07
Actuals). Of the archive services completing The National Archives’ self-assessment exercise in 2008, 71.5
per cent of the top-scoring quartile reported over 15 staff to CIPFA in 2007-08. None of the lowest-
scoring quartile reported over 15 staff. Seven per cent of the top-scoring quartile reported having fewer
than five staff;

Archives for the 21st Century 11

3.4 Performance within local authority archive services across England and Wales has
been monitored over the last two years through a self-assessment process
co-ordinated by The National Archives. This provides an up-to-date overview of
sector performance within key areas of archival activity and also enables each
service to benchmark its performance against the rest of the local authority archives
sector. By using the self-assessment results, local archive services can develop
improvement plans to address their real needs. A number of services have already
secured additional resources for core functions in this way.

3.5 The universities sector is a diverse one, and the role of university archives differs
according to institutional priorities. Within each autonomous university, the
archive’s role may be primarily to support research within the institution itself, to
keep an authentic record of activity or to raise the university’s profile as an
institution within its local and academic community. Until the recent formation of
the Higher Education Archivists Group, the university archives sector has tended to
work collaboratively only on specific issues, principally in successful networking
initiatives, such as the Archives Hub and AIM25.

3.6 Small services often lack ready access to expert preservation advice that can make
prioritising limited resources a major hurdle. Being located in inadequate
buildings can make the optimum preservation environment difficult to achieve,
especially with escalating energy costs, and may put some archive collections at risk
of damage or destruction. Inadequate management of environmental risks such as
temperature, humidity, pest control and danger from fire or flood contributes to the
possible loss of important material.

3.7 The buildings of many archive services are simply too small and not fit for purpose
in various ways. This imposes a real constraint on collection development as well as
on innovative approaches to public access. The image presented to users and
potential funders is not enticing and can be a barrier to new visitors.

3.8 Active collection development, where archives staff seek out and collect
significant material from individuals or key organisations, is being limited through
insufficient staff capacity and/or physical storage space. Important documents are at
risk of being destroyed simply because they are not being acquired by archives.
Collecting to meet changing research priorities can leave a university archive with
‘orphan’ collections, no longer core to their institutional aims but which nonetheless
have a research value external to the university.

3.9 The sale of private collections risks key elements of the national heritage being lost
to overseas purchasers or into private ownership with no guarantee of public
access. To date, little archival material of key importance has been lost or dispersed
in this way because the funding has been made available, largely from charitable or
grant aid sources, to secure successful acquisition by the appropriate repositories.
However, the need to raise large sums to tight timetables can be a major distraction
from other priorities, especially for small archive services.

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3.10 Backlogs of un-catalogued material exist, and are growing, in almost every
repository. This means that people are unable to find out that these materials exist
and information that may be important for research remains undiscovered and
invisible to archive users. Information can also remain hidden from sight in older
catalogues that need to be reviewed to offer better interpretation.

Removing the invisibility cloak –

making archival material more accessible
The National Cataloguing Grants Scheme for Archives is an innovative five-
year programme designed to reduce the volume of archive material that has not been
catalogued. Catalogues provide a detailed description of each item held within archives
and are a vital tool for archive users in tracing the information they need for their
research. The scheme started in 2008, and will run until 2012, following a successful
pilot phase. The project is funded through the generous support of the Pilgrim Trust,
the Foyle Foundation, the Wolfson Foundation, the Monument Trust, the Gladys
Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Mercers’ Company Charitable Foundation, and the
Goldsmiths’ Company. It is administered by The National Archives.

As part of the 2007 pilot, the Writing Lives – archives of literary craft and kinship project
at Exeter University has already resulted in greater access for users to manuscripts,
letters and much-loved poems by South West writers such as Ted Hughes, Daphne du
Maurier and Charles Causley, as well as the Devon poet and critic Patricia Beer.
Indeed, a number of newly discovered letters from Siegfried Sassoon, found in the
papers of Charles Causley, are now available for research through this project.

3.11 Dynamic leadership is needed across the archives sector to create a more
vibrant, outward-looking service that reflects and enhances the community it serves.
There are challenges for leadership at national, professional and institutional levels.
The small size and low profile of most archival institutions can make it challenging to
attract and retain high-calibre professionals with the vision, skills and energy to
develop effective archive services. All too often, archive leaders lack the skills and
the status to be effective advocates for the value of their service. Equally, in
common with many other cultural organisations, there is a challenge for archive
services in developing a diverse workforce that reflects the communities they serve.
In Wales, archive services need to ensure that there are sufficient suitably qualified
staff to deliver a fully bilingual service.

3.12 Many archive services are not yet able to manage digital records and,
indeed, their parent bodies often do not have active record management systems
for identifying paper or digital records of long-term value and transferring them to
the archives. Rapid obsolescence of hardware and software may also lead to
important records that have been retained becoming unreadable and, in some cases,
lost. This is a threat to the effective administration and accountability of public and
other bodies, and to the quality of the services they provide. Although the digital
challenge is most obvious in organisations, archive services are already finding that
the records of private individuals donated to them are also vulnerable to the same
risks of loss.

Archives for the 21st Century 13

3.13 There is currently online access to barely 50 per cent of the descriptions of
archive collections across England and Wales, and images of less than one per cent
of the collections are available electronically. This means that the growing public
expectation for immediate access from home cannot be fully met. Providing
comprehensive access to electronic catalogues is now urgent and necessary if
archives are to remain visible to a generation that increasingly seeks information
online. Making electronic descriptions available online and to international standards
makes it possible to open up data to different user communities.

3.14 Building the capacity for making as much archival content as possible available
digitally, via both national and local partnerships, must also be a priority. It is
unrealistic to think that the cost of digitising all of the material held in archives could
be justified, and there are reasons why it would not be appropriate to digitise some
types of record. However, access to digitised images and documents plays an
important role in a wide range of educational, research, leisure and business
purposes. Archives need a dialogue with users over priorities for digitisation to
develop a strategic approach that maximises the value of public and voluntary
investment in such work.

Connecting histories –
the discovery of a common sense of belonging
Britain today is a multicultural nation, and the history of the West Midlands in the
20th century is central to this story. It is a history of the emergence of multicultural,
multilingual and multi-faith communities of Black, Muslim, Sikh, Jewish, Irish, refugee
and travelling people. Yet the stories that make up this history have remained largely
hidden in archival and library collections; stories of common experiences, shared
struggles and aspirations. Connecting Histories – a project spanning 30 months –
aimed to make these collections accessible and realise their potential, so that
connections can be made between the past and present. The increased access to such
culturally diverse archival material, in the form of documents, photographs and sound
recordings, promoted debate about shared identities, a common sense of belonging
and multiple heritages.

The project brought local people together to learn about archiving their own histories
and gaining new skills essential for exploring their joint histories. Adult learners were
supported in developing their research and IT skills around linked themes of Black
history, social campaigning, migration and settlement. The rich sources of information
about the cultural, industrial and religious diversity held in small collections around the
city have become visible for the first time and are accessible to everyone online in an
e-learning environment. The project expanded the heritage knowledge and skills of
local communities through user participation, particularly among non-traditional users.
It also helped preserve at-risk sound and photographic archives while increasing the
number and diversity of users of archive collections.

Connecting Histories was an innovative partnership project led by Birmingham City

Archives, the University of Birmingham, Warwick University and the Black Pasts,
Birmingham Futures group and supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. It was hugely
successful in its main aim of increasing access to a culturally diverse archive collection.

14
Challenging prejudices using archives and drama
Forgotten, a new play created and acted by adults with learning difficulties, describes the
history of learning-disabled people over the last century and the mistreatment of
residents in long-stay hospitals. It is based on research into the archives from long-stay
hospitals and the real life experiences of the participants. It was the result of a
partnership between ACTA (a community theatre company providing arts
opportunities to excluded communities) and Misfits Theatre Company for adults with
learning difficulties. Staff at the Bristol Record Office helped the participants to
identify suitable material in the archive and to interpret the records for use in their
play.

The project was an opportunity for the participants to share with a wider audience
how they feel and wish to be seen and treated; it provided a vibrant voice for
themselves and others. The play succeeded in getting people together to talk about
these experiences and also to start to begin challenging the prejudices around people
with learning difficulties. The project was funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Archives for the 21st Century 15

4. Response: how do we achieve
the vision?
Recommendations:
Develop bigger and better services in partnership – working towards increased
sustainability within the sector
Strengthened leadership and a responsive, skilled workforce
Co-ordinated response to the growing challenge of managing digital information so
that it is accessible now and remains discoverable in the future
Comprehensive online access for archive discovery through catalogues and to
digitised archive content by citizens at a time and place that suits them
Active participation in cultural and learning partnerships promoting a sense of
identity and place within the community

4.1 In the long term, there is significant value in moving towards a collaborative
culture for archive services. Offering greater efficiency and effectiveness through
innovative partnerships within or between funding authorities will allow scope for
improvements in the quality of services provided. Developing bigger and better
services in partnership is not about imposing solutions. It may operate in a
variety of ways depending on the local context, and must arise out of local need and
active consultation, empowering communities. This could mean, for example, two
small local authority services combining to provide a more effective and sustainable
service on one site or for services to collaborate on the delivery of some specialist
functions while maintaining separate identities. Cross-sector collaborations between
local authorities, universities, the NHS or other public sector partners should also
be explored. Robust joint arrangements are vital to this approach, to allow any
partnership to fulfil its potential. There are already examples where such
partnerships have been developed, for example the Norfolk Record Office and the
University of East Anglia and the Hull History Centre which will offer improved
facilities for the City Archives and University Special Collections.

4.2 New arrangements that draw collections, facilities and staff expertise together can
offer a higher level of stewardship for archival holdings and better use of investment
opportunities. This can also highlight the efficiencies to be gained from sharing
services and corporate facilities with other publicly funded institutions, such as
shared-service contracts for IT and specialist conservation work.

4.3 The exploration of closer cooperation between archive services and with libraries,
museums and other information services will also create exciting opportunities to
develop more innovative services. Partnerships beyond the local authority sector offer
a rich variety of opportunities, such as collaborations with universities to support
research and innovation; working together with the creative industries to develop new
audiences for both sectors; or community archive partnerships with local authorities
that can enrich outreach and audience development opportunities.

16
4.4 Strengthening leadership and raising the profession’s profile is necessary at a
national, local and institutional level. Strategic engagement with policy- and decision-
makers across both local and national government will demonstrate the role and
value of archives in the development of a robust democracy, the implementation of
social policies and in supporting research. Active management and promotion of the
important role of archive services will enhance their profile and value within their
parent organisations and communities. Making the best use of skilled professional
staff, developing innovative partnership working and actively linking with current
information management will build a firm foundation for sustainable archives services
in the future.

4.5 Activities to support the development of leadership and professional skills will be
promoted to create a diverse, vibrant and skilled workforce that can respond to
consumers’ needs in even more creative and imaginative ways. The workforce
already includes many valued staff with unique skills in stewardship and record
keeping. Vital traditional interpretative skills that are valued by users and make the
past come alive must be retained. The conservation skills that are key to allowing
collections to survive and remain accessible must be maintained. However, further
transformation of the workforce can be taken forward: professional skills can be
enhanced through higher education to reflect the sector-recognised National
Occupational Standards. In addition to the traditional skills needed by archivists,
training bodies must ensure that the content of their courses continues to develop
in line with the requirements of the sector. Opportunities provided through
continuing professional development, for archives staff to update or add to their
skills, also need to be enhanced. Smaller services may risk finding themselves ever
more stretched as the challenges grow, unless they can collaborate with other
services to gain the necessary support.

4.6 Developing the existing systems of assessment and recognising and measuring
service quality in public sector archives will support the culture of continuous
improvement and help to define, recognise and promote excellence in the delivery
of archive services. Sharing innovative ideas and promoting good practice will
support this bid to drive up standards and are consistent with the principles of
service improvement.

4.7 Every organisation has to face the ever-growing challenge of managing digital
information. This requires a shift in priorities and skills at all levels of administration
to establish systems for the comprehensive capture and management of digital
records, ensuring that the information is available to support the business of the
organisation. It is important to establish clear connections between records
management and archival functions within an organisation to make sure that key
records are identified and transferred into the archive. In this way, the information
remains discoverable for researchers in the future.

Archives for the 21st Century 17

 Bringing history to life for millions of people
The National Archives does not just hold information; it actively promotes and
encourages public access to, and re-use of, that information. Increasingly, people are
demanding information online and The National Archives has responded positively by
embarking on an ambitious programme to digitise the most popular documents in its
collections.

The programme aims to digitise over 100 million pages by 2012, making them available
across the globe through instant digital access. They range from iconic documents of
great historical interest, such as Domesday Book, through to the hugely popular census
records, prisoner of war and war service records, as well as government legislation.

The National Archives works successfully with private sector partners to make
records available electronically. The commercial partners manage the financial risks,
while all intellectual property rights in the digital material are retained at The National
Archives and income from royalties is ploughed back into developing new services at
The National Archives. The programme encourages competition, innovation and the
development of cutting-edge services. Over 112 million documents from The National
Archives’ collection were downloaded in 2008-09, from a zero base just over eight
years ago. Over 170 documents were downloaded electronically over the internet for
every one document requested in the reading rooms.

4.8 Providing comprehensive online access to archive information is a necessary

response to the increasing proportion of archives users who now expect resources
to be available online at a time and place that suits them. As users increasingly
operate in an online environment, it is ever more vital to capture the volume and
value of online use. There are many archives of international significance in England
and Wales, and provision of online access to information allows this to be
highlighted, with benefits to the knowledge economy and our international research
profile. In addition, public authorities, including publicly funded archive services, have
a range of statutory responsibilities including a Disability Equality Duty to promote
equality of opportunity for disabled people, and to take steps to meet disabled
people’s needs. Digital technology, if used effectively, can also help the archives
sector meet their statutory duties by making archive materials more accessible to
disabled people.

4.9 By harnessing partnerships with the private sector and charitable trusts, the
co-ordination of large-scale opportunities across England and Wales to develop such
services can be maximised. This can include the conversion of paper catalogues into
online resources and digitisation of selected archival content.

4.10 Building active participation in cultural and learning partnerships is key to promoting
a sense of identity and place within the community. By doing so, archive services,
with their delivery partners, are capable of making an important contribution to
improving the quality of life for local people, assisting the understanding of identity,
building bridges across social and cultural divides and generally shaping better places
to live.

18
 Learning from experience and uncovering
the history in archives, museums and libraries
The library, archive and museum services of Bexley Council cooperated to help four
schools deliver Key Stage 2 history – by reliving the history of childhood during the
Blitz. A number of Second World War evacuees visited the schools to talk about their
experiences alongside representatives from the Bluebell Railway and Second World
War re-enactment groups. A mobile exhibition, made up of archives and artefacts from
the local archive centre and museum, was also taken to schools in the borough. In
addition, all the primary schools in Bexley received a Blitz Kids resource pack.

The project aimed to open up libraries, museums and archives to children, and to help
teachers deliver the National Curriculum in different ways. Teachers were able to get
a better idea of the resources available in the borough, and how to access them.
Unexpected benefits included raising the community profile of the services involved in
the project, and promoting a positive working relationship between them.

The original evacuees were keen to share that they had benefited from this as well –
some had been traumatised by their experiences, and the ‘reminiscence therapy’ that
they experienced through the project proved to be very helpful for them.

This project was funded by the Single Regeneration Budget and Bexley Council.

4.11 Volunteering in archives already brings great benefits to the sector and to
participants, and this key aspect should continue to grow and be strengthened.
Volunteers can undertake detailed description work that many archives cannot
resource from their core budgets, but which opens up collections to new users.
Preservation work, particularly tasks such as repackaging and flattening of
documents, has led to the development of active volunteer communities in many
archives, and to the better care of the collections. Volunteering in archives has also
proved its value in supporting return to work initiatives for the long-term sick or
unemployed.

4.12 Where archives are positioned within their parent organisation may have a
significant impact on the ease with which they can form partnerships for service
delivery. In reviewing organisational structures, there is a need to consider both the
desirability of partnerships with other cultural providers and the importance of the
role the archive service plays in information management within the parent
organisation. Direct involvement in the decision-making process is key to ensuring
the informational and cultural value of archives is realised to the full.

4.13 Collaborative arrangements have the potential to enhance the status and role of
archives within communities, providing social benefits and opening up new ways in
which the resources of archives are made available. Innovations in areas such as
network provision and digital preservation will be greatly enhanced by sustained
partnerships between archive services.

Archives for the 21st Century 19

4.14 Archive services and the professionals responsible for them, by adhering to best
practice in community engagement, not only involve communities in the planning
and delivery of services, but can realise the contribution made by archives to
empowering communities in the broadest sense.

4.15 Recent education initiatives in both England and Wales have highlighted
opportunities for archive services to participate in innovative learning experiences in
schools and for lifelong learning. By harnessing the diverse resources within archives,
as well as libraries and museums, archive services can respond to the requirements
of the National Curriculum in new and exciting ways. Strengthening the links
between education services and archives can maximise learning opportunities and
unlock
the rich potential in our archives. Archive services should develop work with
after-school clubs and specific student groups on curriculum-based projects.
These partnerships could make better use of shared exhibition and display spaces,
and open up meeting rooms and community spaces for education use.

A model for excellence for publicly funded

archive services
High performing archive services should aim to:
Broaden and deepen public access to their resources
Embed excellence, scholarship, creativity and diversity in all they do
Support evidence-based policy making and the accountability of decision makers
Ensure the sustainability of services by balancing resources across their
responsibilities and placing continuous improvement and value for money at the
heart of all activities
Offer high levels of stewardship to their unique collections and work towards
meeting relevant national and international standards for preservation and
description
Collect actively to fulfil their collecting remit within the national network of
archives, to ensure the survival and authenticity of key collections that make up the
nation’s unique documentary heritage
Perform to the highest levels and champion continuous professional development
Integrate with other cultural, learning and information services to offer essential
resources that meet people’s needs
Innovate, be entrepreneurial and able to adapt to new working methods
Provide places for people to visit and use that are accessible, fit for purpose,
attractive and enjoyable

20
5. Action: what needs to be done?
5.1 In the current challenging economic climate, it is more important than ever that
archive services demonstrate the impact and value of what they do and have a clear
sense of direction and purpose.

5.2 To ensure a sustainable future for archives, concerted action is required from all
parties across the archive sector. The National Archives will be working with both
the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and CyMAL: Museums Archives
and Libraries Wales, a division of the Welsh Assembly Government, to develop
strategic leadership for the archive sector. These bodies can broker greater
understanding of the value and need for archives, both for maintaining a record of
public life and for their wider contribution to the community.

5.3 Archives for the 21st Century will be accompanied by two action plans, one for
England and one for Wales, to demonstrate how The National Archives, MLA and
CyMAL will provide clear leadership and action in taking forward this policy. The
National Archives, MLA and CyMAL will monitor progress in the implementation of
the English and Welsh action plans.

5.4 The National Archives is well placed to lead on negotiating national deals for
projects across the sector, such as the digitisation of catalogues and archival
content. Such projects can benefit individual archive services, delivering large
quantities of content online and offering limited income streams.

5.5 The National Archives and MLA will work together with key sector bodies to
develop the skills and capabilities to take these opportunities forward. CyMAL and
the professional bodies in Wales will continue to work together with The National
Archives to realise the value of Wales’ rich heritage and to ensure that all Welsh
archive services are empowered to realise their full potential in this digital age.

5.6 For publicly funded archive services and their parent organisations, this policy
provides an opportunity to identify where archives can contribute to organisational
objectives such as delivering public policy goals. These may particularly include
community engagement, well-being, education, research, lifelong learning and local
regeneration and growth. It also addresses the challenges limiting this contribution
at present. Implementing incremental change within existing resources and exploiting
the opportunities created through reviewing priorities as part of the regular
business planning process make it possible to build major improvement into the
delivery of archive services and the wider organisation.

5.7 When investment is being planned in archival and cultural services, consideration
should be given to incorporating innovative and cross-sector partnership
arrangements that can deliver benefits in greater efficiencies and effectiveness.

Archives for the 21st Century 21

5.8 Archive services across England and Wales have the potential to be an even more
valuable resource at the heart of their communities. Their contribution to local
democracy and accountability, education, learning and culture and the sense of
identity and place for local people, communities and organisations, is frequently
understated and consequently unrecognised. The archive sector needs to harness
the skills of those dedicated professionals within its ranks who are best placed to
identify and articulate the opportunities for archives to contribute in this vital way in
their own local communities.

22
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